NIU student dies after crash on Tri-State Tollway

(MCT) — Danielle Pisterzi hoped to graduate from Northern Illinois University this year with an accounting degree, but first she needed to complete an internship at a firm.

Her family believes that Pisterzi, 21, was returning to her Northwest Side home late Saturday from her internship when she collided with an SUV on the Tri-State Tollway near Willow Road.

Pisterzi had been working long hours for her internship at Warady & David LLP in Deerfield because the firm was busy with the tax season, said her father, Frank Pisterzi.

"She was my baby," he said.

Danielle Pisterzi was driving a 2004 Hyundai when she struck an Audi SUV carrying four people about 10:45 p.m., state police said. Pisterzi was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 11:52 p.m.

Police told Pisterzi's family that her car also struck a wall before it flipped on its roof. No one else was taken to the hospital, police said.

After having spent semesters in DeKalb, Pisterzi was back home living with her family in the 5700 block of North Nina Avenue, where she grew up, her father said.

Pisterzi said his daughter knew what she meant to her family.

"I was pretty fortunate. I told her every day that I loved her," her father said.